mechanical fluid meters, e.g. gas meters or water meters, for metering fluid consumption and providing a reading of total consumption are used very widely.
These meters are normally read manually, which is expensive and not very practical given that the meter reader must periodically visit each user in order to read the meter. This takes up a great deal of time. In addition, since meters are not usually accessible from outside a home or other building, meters can normally only be read when the user is present.
It would also be very expensive to scrap all existing mechanical or electromechanical fluid meters and replace them with meters of some other type, since the existing meters are normally apparatus having long lifetimes.
In addition, it is often desirable for safety reasons, particularly when the metered fluid is a combustible gas, to avoid having electrical circuits in the immediate vicinity of the meter, and in this respect mechanical meters are completely safe.
The present invention seeks to remedy the above-mentioned drawbacks and to make it possible to read a mechanical fluid meter automatically and remotely while requiring a minimum of modifications to the structure of the meter.